Dragon Cult Remnants
The are a collection of the various surviving members of the Dragon Cult. Without the unifying figure of Alduin to lead them, the various dragons and masked priests were scattered and now act independently according to their own ideals and ambitions. History Beginnings According to legends, the Dragon Cult was first founded in the Early Merethic Era. Atmoran myths tell that after the War of the God that ended the Dawn Era, Alduin placed his children in charge of the humans. These children, the dragons, ruled over mankind during all of the Merethic Era. However, there were a lot fewer dragons than there were humans so to maintain a strong grip on them the dragons had to have their followers act on their behalf. These followers were the Dragon Priests. There were other priests and cults in Atmora belonging to the other gods, but none were as powerful as Alduin's followers. The Dragon Priests were given power by the dragons, both political and physical power. They were taught to speak the dragon tongue (Dovahzul) and learned to wield the power of the Thu'um. With this power the Dragon Priests were more powerful than any Atmoran king and they enacted a strict rule over their kinsmen in the name of Alduin. The Dragon Priests were always appointed to their position by the dragons themselves and answered only to them. To mark their position within the cult, they were given magical masks that increased their powers further. One of the most famous of these priests was Konahrik the Warlord. According to legends he was the son of Alduin and Mara and possessed godly powers in his own right. He was the only priest to rule over all other of his masked brethren. When he died he was said to have ascended to godhood as Orkey the Priest, god of the Snake Cult. After him, none other held such power over the entire continent. Each Dragon Priest ruled over a region and had little control outside of it, similarly to how Atmoran Jarls only held sway in their own territory. This fueled rivalries and disputes among the dragon priests as they vied for power, lands and the amusement of the dragons. This won the Dragon Priests no love from the population and would eventually lead to their downfall and that of their masters. However, not all Dragon Priests were ill-rulers. Some are remembered as being more kind, just and capable as the Atmoran nobles that ruled underneath them. Shattering When the Atmorans began to migrate heavily into Skyrim following the Return, circa ME 300, the Dragon Priests and their winged masters came with them. As Skyrim was a much more bountiful land when compared to the frozen, unforgiving and dying Atmora, they moved their entire organization to the new continent. They founded the city of Bromjuunar and made it the new capital of their rule, placing within it the mask of Konahrik. For the next three centuries, the Dragon Priests helped expand the Atmoran hold on Skyrim, building numerous settlements, temples and barrows. All the while maintaining their firm grip on the increasing population. Their rule would finally be tested around ME 20 when Skalds in Haafingar sparked a rebellion that soon engulfed all of Skyrim. Atmorans everywhere began to rise up against the Dragon Cult and their masters, though some remained loyal. Thus started the Dragon War. At first the humans were losing, but after Paarthurnax betrayed Alduin and sided with the rebels, the tide of the war began to turn. Atmorans with the ability to use the Thu'um, called Tongues, were created and they actually had the power to best dragons and their priests. What secured the defeat of the Cult was the apparent death of Alduin at the Throat of the World by the hand of three Tongues. This marked the end of the Merethic Era and the reign of the dragons. After Alduin's defeat, many of the dragons and priests continued to fight the rebels. Some, however, accepted defeat and went into hiding instead of throwing their lives away on Atmoran blades. These survivors became the Remnants of the Dragon Cult and they continued to live in seclusion throughout the 1st Era. Structure The Dragon Cult recruited members all throughout Atmoran society. Anyone could join the cult, but usually they did so as children. The Cult sometimes forced its subjects to give them children to induct into their numbers. Some did join the cult willingly later in their life, but that was not the norm. It was easier to have loyal cultists if they were raised into the ideology since their youth. Those cultists that proved skilled, ambitious or both were able to advance to the highest positions within the cult and receive boons from the dragons in the form of masks that increased their power. Ranks *''Konahrik'' (Warlord): leader of the whole cult, only ever obtained by one dragon priest (Orkey the Priest). *''Rahvokdrog'' (Masked Lord): powerful dragon priests that ruled over considerable subjects and lands, akin to kings. *''Lokdrog'' (High Lord): dragon priests of notable power and influence, but did not possess masks. *''Ventovitaan'' (Disciple): cult members of proved worth, ambition and power that have been taken by one of the dragon priests as their personal apprentices. *''Tinvaak'' (Speaker): cult members grated the ability to use the Thu'um who act as the personal enforcers of the dragon priests. *''Seirakmun'' (Adept): cult members of noteworthy power and undeniable loyalty. *''Kiibokaar'' (Acolyte): cult members of tested skill and loyalty. *''Ahtamun'' (Novice): lowest ranking members of the cult, initiates or those of unproven skill. Remnants Cult of Durnehviir Durnehviir was a dragon that lived among his kin in the skies above Tamriel during the Merethic Era. While his brethren used more traditional forms of combat, Durnehviir pursued an interest in necromancy that eventually led him to the Ideal Masters of the Soul Cairn. His wish was to raise armies of undead for his own ends, so he made a pacts with the Ideal Masters to gain access to their realm's undead. The first of these pacts was to give them the souls of his followers in exchange for access to the Soul Cairn undead. Despite the fact that Durnehviir betrayed his original followers to the Ideal Masters his power in necromancy attracted many new followers that he could then, unbeknownst to them, trade to the Ideal Masters for more power. This gave him a small and ever-changing cult of power-hungry followers. Durnehviir spent most of his time in the Soul Cairn, bargaining with the Ideal Masters and training his followers in necromancy before betraying them and trading them to the gain more control over the undead forces of the Soul Cairn. Because of this, Durnehviir missed the Dragon War in its entirely, only discovering that Alduin had been defeated and the dragons thrown down from their thrones decades later. This made it harder for Durnehviir to acquire new followers, and more importantly new souls, to trade to the Ideal Masters. Thus he sometimes ventures out into Nirn to gather souls, but quickly returns to the Soul Cairn. He is never in Nirn long enough for the humans to attempt to hunt him. Due to its headquarters being in the Soul Cairn and its size being very small, the cult of Durnehviir has existed without being discovered by the Atmorans. Cult of Forelhost The temple of Forelhost was located far from Atmoran lands, deep in the lands of the Snow Elves in the southern Rift. This allowed them to avoid both the war and remain completely undetected by the Atmoran rebels. This cult is led by the Dragon Priest Rahgot and is still in hiding from Atmoran society. Cult of Jermulgraag The cult that served the dragon Jermulgraag survived the Dragon War due to him ordering them to seal their temple and remain in hiding after the defeat of Alduin in 1E 0. The cult was only a few dozen strong at that point and their temple was located in the northern Velothi Mountains. For the next century the cult survived with no outside contact as their numbers slowly dwindled until all their members were dead by 1E 139. All the cultists had been turned into Draugr. Only the master, Jermulgraag remained. He was extremely paranoid about keeping himself hidden from the humans to avoid being hunted down. In 1E 139, a treasure hunter discovered the temple and forced Jermulgraag to show himself to kill the treasure hunter and attempt to keep the location a secret. However, unbeknownst to him a local game hunter saw him flying above the forest and spread rumors to the nearby town of Yorgrim. Within a few weeks a bounty had been placed on the dragon by a local thane and a group of hunters went searching for him. They found his temple and fought their way through his undead cultists, before reaching his inner sanctum in the mountain. After a tough battle, the Tongue called Harald Word-Bringer dealt the finishing blow to the dragon. With Jermulgraag dead, this cult remnant was extinguished for good. Cult of Morokei The Dragon Priest Morokei was born as Vilrekr Blǫnduhorn around ME 60, the third son of the elder of Blekstein village. The island of Blekstein had always been ruled directly by the dragon cult, and so Vilrekr's clan was closely connected to them. He was given to the cult at a young age and eventually became the disciple of the Dragon Priest Haldriin, the last ruler of the island cult. By the time of the Dragon War, Morokei had become a Dragon Priest in his own right and earned himself a mask. He fought heavily in the war, but still survived. After Alduin was defeated, however, he abandoned the war and went into hiding. Unlike the other Dragon Cult Remnants, he ordered his cult to abandon their temple and slip into Atmoran society. The cult is considered disbanded, but Morokei is still at large. Cult of Nahlotjun The Dragon Priest Nahlotjun was relatively uninvolved during the Dragon War, though he was without a doubt on the side of the dragons. He had been a major priest in the cult for decades, but his unorthodox beliefs made him unpopular with his fellow priests. Once Alduin was defeated he led his followers into seclusion in the Jerall Mountains rather than continue the war. This allowed his cultists to survive eradication and live on as one of the Dragon Cult Remnants. His beliefs actually allowed him to win over more cultists after the war. With its seclusion, this cult is currently unknown to the Atmorans. Members *Nahlotjun - Leader *Heyvahkrin - Speaker Cult of Ragnvald The Dragon Priest Otar was originally an Atmoran chieftain who ruled over the town of Ragnvald in the Late Merethic Era. Initially, he was believed to have been a benevolent ruler and highly successful in battle, but after joining the Dragon Cult his mind was corrupted and he was driven to insanity. Otar became a Dragon Priest by the time of the Dragon War. He had become infamous for subjecting his people to great cruelty. He survived the Dragon War, having stayed out of it for his lands were far from the front-lines. However, after Alduin was defeated the Atmorans turned their attention to Otar the Mad. The two heroes, Saerek and Torsten led the force that went to stop his tyranny. Owing to Otar's immense power, both heroes were unable to defeat him despite their most valiant efforts, so they instead resorted to permanently sealing him in a large sarcophagus in Ragnvald and locked it with two skull keys that each of them kept. They pledged to defend the keys with their lives so that Otar would never escape his imprisonment. The town of Ragnvald was eventually abandoned, but Saerek and Torsten remained as Otar's guardians. With their leader sealed away and their headquarters a ghost-town, the cult is considered extinct. Cult of Valthume Seeing that the war was lost, the Dragon Priest Hevnoraak began to plan for the future. He used his powers of Illusion to mind-control Atmorans and increase the numbers of his cult, obtaining a large army of thralls. No matter what torture he inflicted upon them, fear was enough to keep them in line and do his bidding. With this army he kept himself safe from the rebels. His cult fought many times with the Jarls of Hvitstrad until they were finally defeated. Before his death, a few years after the Dragon War, Hevnoraak obsessively planned his resurrection. He drained the blood from his body and planned to transfer his power back into himself after death, thus becoming a powerful lich. When he died, his blood was stored in three opaque vessels that were kept in Valthume. Left alone, Hevnoraak would eventually awaken once he was powerful enough to restore himself. An Atmoran warrior named Valdar discovered Hevnoraak's plan and locked himself in Valthume, binding himself to Hevnoraak in order to stop his reawakening. Even in death, the ghost of Valdar guards the tomb of Hevnoraak. With their leader's soul trapped, the cult is considered extinct. Category:Factions Category:Cults